Many modern authors are happy to describe worlds that are in any kind of catastrophe. Dystopian novels are particularly popular. In addition, almost every story brings something new to the culture of countries. The word "divergent" is a good example of this phenomenon. However, do not forget that the concept of "divergent", like "divergence", was used before the publication of the novel. However, Veronica Roth helps to find out new, specific variants of meaning.
Divergence. Psychology of Personality
According to psychology, there are individuals to whom the concept of "divergent" can be applied. These are those people who are often out of the ordinary range. That is, they also instilled the moral and ethical aspects of life in society, but they did not always like it.
Often individuals who can be called divergents are not understood by the people around them. This is due to the fact that they live in a fantasy world. For this type of person, any little thing can become a source of inspiration. It is noteworthy that the great artists who non-standard saw the world, or scientists who created something that others could not even think about, were also most likely divergent.
Natural selection. How to become a divergent?
In biology, you can also find the concept of "divergence". It came from the Latin root of "divergio", which, in turn, means "divergence". This concept defines the differences in the development of living beings during their change of habitat.
That is, despite similar primary data, an animal placed in other conditions will inevitably receive its own unique features. In this case, we mean not only behavioral, but also external differences. In birds, this may be a change in beak, in mammals, an increase or decrease in hairline. In general, any factors that help the animal survive can be attributed to divergence.
Divergents: the meaning of the concept in linguistics
Divergents are also found in linguistics. So scientists call variants of the same phoneme in different words. Another term for divergents is allophones. This is the hard and soft sound “m” in the words “house” and “house”, the phoneme “a” in the words “five” and “pat” and so on.
Divergence can be not only sound. Divergence is also the process of distinguishing a dialect into an independent language, the formation of national variants of the same language. As an example of the first phenomenon, we can cite 3 independent languages - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian - which stood out from a single Old Russian language.
What are divergence in terms of linguistics in the second case? Examples are American English and British English. Here you can find differences not only in terms of pronunciation. So, a number of words can be used in the language in a different sense. That is, a single language has undergone changes in the course of evolution, and now we can say that these are different groups with their own characteristics.
Transfer. What does divergent mean?
The concept of "divergent" was introduced into everyday life a long time ago. However, as already mentioned above, it was actively used in everyday life only after the publication of the novel by writer Veronica Roth. Of course, we are talking about ordinary people. In the environment of a number of professions, this concept is already familiar.
What does divergent mean? Translating a word from English may vary slightly. So, there are several options that have similar meanings:
This applies primarily to character, as well as outlook on life. The discrepancy in appearance is usually not marked with the word "divergent". This is a characteristic of life views and mindset. Of course, if you use binding to a person.
Divergents in the novel. How the concept is revealed
Do not forget that the popularity of the concept was brought by the novel of the writer Veronica Roth. Therefore, it is logical to touch on how exactly the author of the work "Divergent" understands this word. This helps to consider the word versatile.
What is a "divergent", it becomes clear already in the first part of the trilogy. The novel takes place in a world that has survived the global war, in the only surviving city - Chicago. Society in the city is divided into five fractions, and each person who has reached the age of 16 must undergo testing to determine which fraction he belongs to. In its testing, the main character Beatrice Prior received frightening results. Therefore, the testing girl, who is in the Fearlessness fraction, advises Tris to hide and not tell anyone about testing.
She reveals Tris a secret. Anyone who can imagine himself in the ranks of any of the factions, he is a divergent. In the middle of the book, the heroine realizes that people like her are being hunted. That is the reason she should hide. As a result, in the final part, serum that suppresses the will does not act on it. However, Beatrice is smart enough to pretend to fulfill orders from her superiors. This incident allows her to find out that her lover is also a divergent.
The meaning of the word "divergents" changes slightly in the second part of the novel, which is called "Insurgent." In it, people who are divergent are considered the key. Only they can open the message left by those who founded the colony in Chicago. Since such people see the differences between the simulation and the truth, only they can pass the final test and open a secret message. However, the head of the city does not believe that they should live, and therefore destroys divergences.
In the third part, the concept of “divergent” changes again. This time it turns out that those who have a straightened gene system are called that way. They are considered "clean."
What is a divergent?
If you familiarize yourself with everything that is described above, we can conclude that the “divergent” is one who does not look like the generally accepted one. By the way, it is precisely such a translation that is used when translating from English into Russian.
In psychology, this term is used to define a person who is distinguished by his bold outlook on life. In biology, it also refers to the appearance of a living creature. As for linguistics, here this concept applies to languages that have received changes and were able to be divided into separate groups.